Doctors come together to form AIR Council

According to a recent WHO report, as many as 1.2 million deaths take place every year due to air pollution with Delhi being India’s most polluted city.ETHealthWorld | Updated: September 15, 2017, 15:36 IST

Representative image New Delhi: Medical experts with different specialities, from across the country came together on Friday for an inaugural meeting to form a body known as Air Pollution Institute of Research (AIR) Council in Mumbai. The Council aims to define and establish the need of recognising the health hazards of air pollution as a clinical issue and formulate a framework on how the common man can protect himself, his family and the community from its ill-impacts.

After a detailed discussion on the matter, the council will release a white paper based on their research and knowledge, formulate a structure for clinical conversation (for disease diagnosis) and come up with preventive solutions, do’s & don’ts that can be adapted by people across the globe.

They will also extend their support in developing educational material for patient and health care professionals and share insights to help the world work towards preventing the problem from taking more lives than it already has.

The AIR Council chaired by Dr. Ashok Mahashur, constitutes of the following founding members:According to WHO, 92% of the world’s population lives in places where air quality levels exceed WHO limits and 1 in 4 deaths of children under 5 years of age are attributed to polluted environment.

Most cities in India have pollution levels higher than permissible limit by WHO which impact millions of lives every day.

According to a recent WHO report, as many as 1.2 million deaths take place every year due to air pollution with Delhi being India’s most polluted city. These alarming facts create an urgent need for an initiative like this to help humans cope with the effects of the situation at hand.